Making Winter Wishes Come True

With the holidays upon us, we tend to remember the happy memories we had as a kid when opening the gifts. However, not every child has the opportunity to experience that.

New York Cares runs a program called Winter Wishes in which kids write letters wishing for gifts. I explained to everyone that anyone participating would be a Secret Santa and expect nothing in return but that feeling that they made someone's Christmas brighter. After getting a majority of the office signed up, we all received our letters and went on a mission to be the best Santas we could. Some requests were pricey such as a Nintendo 3DS, but people here still fulfilled those wishes. All of our gifts have been mailed out and we feel joy throughout the office.

There were a lot of positive feedback.

• Kenny: "I really enjoyed it. I liked how it gave the gift giver some leeway but also made sure the child got something meaningful."
• Meredith : "I saved my kid's letter, I loved it so much. I think I liked it so much because I saw myself in the kid....like when I was her age I wanted to play with the "boy" toys too...I played with Legos and trucks with my brother all the time."

Stephanie making sure the present goes to the right place.

If you couldn't tell, Sal is a professional gift wrapper.

Chris & Sal dropping off their gifts at the Post Office.